Independent US Senate candidate Angus King purchased two $5,000 tickets to President Barack Obama’s fundraising dinner in Portland Feb. 21, a week prior to Olympia Snowe’s surprise announcement that she would not seek reelection, his campaign said today.

King’s purchase was made as a single transaction payable to the Obama Victory Fund, which later divided it into two payments: $4000 went to Obama’s campaign and $6000 to the Democratic National Committee, King’s spokeswoman, Crystal Canney told the Press Herald. She provided a credit card statement consistent with this account.

The transactions were reported to the Federal Election Commission and appear on their disclosures. The portion of the purchase that went to the DNC appeared with a Feb. 29 transaction date, the day after Snowe’s announcement.

Monday, the campaign website of one of King’s rivals, Republican Rick Bennett, posted a screenshot of the transactions with the statement: “’Independent’ Angus King gave $6000 to the Democratic National Committee the day after Senator Snowe announced her retirement. Why?”

“Is it really a secret who Angus plans to caucus with in Washington?” it concluded.

Bennett’s point was to raise questions about just how independent King will be if he's elected — a legitimate query in a Senate where recent independents haven’t really been all that independent. King, a Democrat until his first run for governor as an independent in 1994, hasn’t said which party he would formally caucus with if he wins. But he was an Obama donor in the past.

The King campaign had a ready explanation to questions about the February DNC transaction: King had purchased the tickets to the Obama dinner, they were used by his son and daughter-in-law and the purchase price was divided between party entities.

In any case, the campaign noted Wednesday, King has been public in his support for President Obama.